Professional Documents
Culture Documents
D O R O T H Y M. FIGUEIRA
In going East . . . everyone . . . ought to feel that he is going to his "old
home," full of memories, if only he can read them. 1
If we follow them [the Indian poets] cautiously, we shall find that with
some effort we are still able to walk in their footsteps. 2
De l'lnde . . . descend un torrent de lumiere, un fleuve de Droit et de
Raison. 3
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Gegenbild to E u r o p e e s p e c i a l l y n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y E u r o p e
which was c a r e e n i n g toward bastardization t h r o u g h the overthrow of class structure. Gobineau did not use the t e r m Arier f o r
Jews. 2 6 H e held to Noah's genealogy a n d , f o r him, the Semites
belonged to the white race. It should be n o t e d that Gobineau's
theories, unlike those of the o t h e r Aryan race theorists, were
hardly circulated or accepted by his contemporaries.
T h e o d o r Poesche, Karl P e n k a , a n d G e o r g e V a c h e r de
L a p o u g e 2 7 maintained that t h e r e existed a linguistic classification
of I n d o - E u r o p e a n languages necessitating an I n d o - E u r o p e a n
c o m m u n i t y of speakers, a Volk family. T h e s e theorists routinely
combined linguistic classifications with race classifications. 28 For
Poesche and Penka, the Urtype was dolichocephalic ( G e r m a n Scandanavian) a n d bracycephalic (Celt, Slav). W h o was Urherr
a n d who was the Urknecht in their system? In England, the Germans (Anglos, Saxons a n d N o r m a n s ) subjugated indigenous
Celts; in France, the G e r m a n s (Franks) the Celtic Gauls; in Southe r n E u r o p e , the G e r m a n s the indigenous Italians o r Iberians; in
the East, the G e r m a n s subjugated the Slavs. T h e s e G e r m a n s were
the b r a h m a n s in India: they were strong, blond a n d blue-eyed in
the n o r t h d u e to light a n d climate. Poesche situated their Urheimat
in Lithuania; Penka in Scandinavia; L a p o u g e by the N o r t h Sea. In
early times, this Urvolk w a n d e r e d to India, but they f o u n d the
climate unconducive. T h e y eventually left; those who had ties
with the d a r k i n d i g e n o u s p o p u l a t i o n r e m a i n e d . T h u s these
Aryans effected a selection of the fittest, when the colonizers were
decimated a n d forced to mix f o r survival. T h e present-day inhabitants of India have only a small percentage of Aryan blood
coursing t h r o u g h their veins, since, early on in their stay, they
diluted their race by mingling with the indigenous population.
Poesche held that while m o d e r n Indian languages were mostly
Aryan, the Volk physically could n o longer m a k e such a claim. T o
these Aryan theorists, the Indians were
Negroes and Mulattoes, who know how to retain the noble language of
their paternal ancestors. Subtropical nature has physically and spiritually
overrun the Aryan species and stifled its fullness. 29
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Here is the task presented, not less than four races to breed once and for
all: a priestly, warrior, peasant and finally a servant race, the sudras . . .
But also it is important for this organization to be formidable, not in
battle with a brute, but with its opposite idea, the man of race, the mishmash man, the candala.40
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According to Ariosophy, the time had come to reverse the ascendency of the inferior races in Europe. By advocating the extermination of inferior races, Lanz exceeded Nietzsche's rhetorical
fulminations against Christian compassion, which called f o r
sterilization and castration. 5 4 T h e Pan-German periodical,Ostara,
dealt with such problems as economical racial issues. A m o n g
stock themes of this journal are f o u n d the caste laws according to
Manu, documentation concerning the Manichean struggle of
dark races against blonds, racial somatology, antiparlamentarianism and racial sexual differences. 5 5 For a population distressed by the effects of defeat, economic collapse and revolution
u p o n their traditional values, the second Ostara series (1922), 58
o f f e r e d solace: "all oriental and ancient states had declined with
the appearance of mob-rule and the dictatorship of the blond
"Ario-heroic" ruling class." Some historians, seeking to account
f o r his Manichean vision of Aryan versus Jew, maintain that Hitler was deeply influenced by a disciple of Lanz, Dr. Karl
Lueger, 5 7 and was a regular reader of Von Liebenfels' Ostara.58
Hitler was certainly receptive to the comic book Manichean vision
of the conflict between Blonds and the dark races and it is generally believed that he was more influenced by the conflict between
Aryans and Tschandalas of Ostara and similar pamphlets than by
Gobineau and Nietzsche. Furthermore, one can find echoes of
Lanz' theories as they were articulated in Ostara in the T h i r d
Reich's decrees banning interrace marriages, extinction of inferior races t h r o u g h polygamy, and SS Lebensborn homes. 5 9
However, the suggestion of any direct influence of occultnationalistic groups on Hitler must be tempered. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler made contemptuous attacks on the "volkisch wandering
scholars" of these lodges and noted that Germany's salvation dem a n d e d a mass political party which could be effectual in battle
and not the antiquarianism and ceremonial antics so prevalent in
these o r g a n i z a t i o n s . 6 0 In this sense, Hitler a c k n o w l e d g e d
Ariosophy as a symptom rather than a significant influence. T h e
NSDAP would diverge in its views on ideology and action f r o m
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was diluted t h r o u g h infelicitous mixing of the races, "after longlasting proximity with the ever more penetrating representation
of the low-caste indigenous population." 7 5
With their supremacy thus overturned, Indian Aryans became
less creative as bastard art (in the f o r m of such things as phallic
worship) took over. Although traces of Aryan genius occasionally
blossomed in the lyrics of Kalidasa and the philosophy of Shankara, it could not stem the tide. It was not simply the issue of blood
which precipitated the Aryans' downfall, but rather their spiritual
values, specifically the concepts of Atman IBrahman, which destroyed their sense of race, as it had once destroyed their personality. 76 In the misguided quest for the individual Self, the Aryan
oversoul perished. 7 7 With the loss of personality and racial consciousness followed also the loss of honor. In terms reminiscent of
Nietzsche, India has fallen prey to influences which sapped its
spiritual strength. 7 8
Buddhist and Christian compassion as well as Indian pessimism
brought about the apotheosis of the Aryan Untermensch,79 Compassion, loss of individual racial Self, inaction and the ultimate
consequent of fatalism characterize the destiny of the Aryan in
India. 8 0 T h e land of o u r dreams and hopes for cultural invigoration perished d u e to its own spiritual flaw. Those advocating Indian spirituality in the West, those indulging in the fatuous quest
for redemption might well take notice of where their flirtation is
leading them. 8 1
India's tragedy consists in the disappearance of the Indian
Aryan. T h e society which had once given us the genius of Sanskrit
epic and the sophistication of speculative philosophy has now
degenerated into race chaos. India was "used up" (verbraucht) and
weak. 82 T h e figure of Gandhi epitomized India's implicit call for
inaction and fatalism. T h e Indian situation was bad enough: its
rejection of the world led to the Aryans mixing with indigenous
populations, which led to spiritual weakness and loss of a racial
"will to self-assertion" (Selbstbehauptungswillen) and Gandhi with
his pacifism struck the death blow. 83
Rosenberg took particular issue with the G a n d h i - r a p t u r e
('Gandhi-Verziickung) which was raging in the volkisch-nationalist
camp. T h e admirers of Gandhi were particularly deleterious to
G e r m a n A r y a n s . G e r m a n s following I n d i a n philosophical
fatalism and its m o d e r n historical praxis can only lose their own
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REFERENCES
1. F. Max Miiller, India: What Can It Teach Us (New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1883), 49.
2. Rig-Veda Samhita: the Sacred Hymns of the Brahmins, trans, and ed. F.
Max Miiller, 6 vols. (London: William H. Allen, 1856), 3:ix.
3. Jules Michelet, La Bible de I'humanite (Paris: Chamerot, 1864), 485.
4. Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, The Morning of the Magicians
(New York: Avon, 1963) posited the idea of the importance of the Thule
Society and its contacts with Gurdgieff. J. H. Brennan, The Occult Reich
(New York: New American Library, 1974) posited the influence of Tibetan Buddhists on Hitler. See also R. Alleau, Hitler et les societes secretes
(Paris: B. Grasset, 1969); T. Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny (New York:
Bantam, 1973); J. M. Angebert, The Occult and the Third Reich (New York:
Macmillan, 1974).
5. For a critique of this scholarship, see Jiirgen Liitt, "Indische Wurzeln des Nationalsozialismus?" Zeitschrift fur Kulturaustausch 3 (1987):
468-79.
6. Amaury de Riencourt, The Soul of India (London: Jonathan Cape)
268: " T h e oriental Renaissance was bearing bitter fruits, and it is still an
open question whether all this could have happened without the discovery of Aryan India in the 19th century."
7. Of particular use in this regard are the works of Georg Mosse, The
Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York,
Grosset and Dunlap, 1964); Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social
Life in the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1966); The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germanyfrom the
Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1980);
Masses and Men: Nationalist and Fascist Perceptions of Reality (New York:
Howard Fertig, 1980); Toward a Final Solution: A History of European Racism (New York: Harper and Row, 1978). Also important in this context
are the works of Leon Poliakov, Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the
Destruction of the Jews of Europe, foreward by Reinhold Niebuhr (New
York: T h e Holocaust Library, 1979); The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist
and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. T r a n s . E d m u n d Howard (London:
Heinemann, 1971); The History of Anti-Semitism. Trans. Miriam Kochan
(New York: Vanguard, 1968) and Leon Poliakov and Josef Wulf, Das
Dritte Reich und seine Diener. Documente, 2nd edit. (Berlin: Grunewald
Verlag G.m.b.H., 1956).
8. Raymond Schwab, The Oriental Renaissance, trans. Gene PattersonBlack and Victor Reinking, forward by Edward Said (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
9. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, essai sur les sources du racisme et des
nationalismes (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1971) 214, 384.
10. Leon Poliakov, Le Mythe aryan, 210.
11. In the same manner, Nietzsche allowed Germans to see themselves
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s r a t e n e n , S c h l e c h t w e g g e k o m m e n e n gegen die "Rasse"die unsterbliche Tschandala-Rache als Religion der Liebe . . ."
44. According to Manu, even among outcasts, the candalas were the
lowest like swine or dog and excluded from the village.
45. A popular theme for this lunatic fringe consisted in speculation of
the descendance through sudra men and brahman women.
46. "Rundschau in der auslandischen theosophischen Literatur," Neue
Lotusbliiten, 1910 (2): 370.
47. T h e population of Vienna tripled between 1870-90.
48. T h e equivalent to the Age of Bronze in Hindu mythology.
49. "Neuzeitliche Einherier" und "Wer ist der Starke von Oben?" in
Johannes Balzli, Guido v. List, der Wiederentdecker uralter arischer Weisheit
(Leipzig und Vienna, Guido von List Gesellschaft, 1917) 116-24; 125-33.
50. Social Darwinists published between the 1890's and 1910. Ernst
Hackel, the eminent zoologist who warned against the mixing of races,
founded the Monist League in 1906 to popularize a racist version of the
social Darwinism among Germans.
51. Later racist theorists, such as Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) and
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), based their theories on skull
measurements and other physical characteristics such as hair color and
eye color, rather than the earlier racists, like Gobineau, who relied on
linguistics as the standard of racial distinction.
52. T o draw these distinctions, heraldic devices, in which the Aryans
had recorded the karma of their families were studied. S e e j o r g Lanz von
Liebenfels, "Grundriss der ariosophischen Geheimlehre," Zeitschrift fur
Menschenkenntnis und Menschenschicksal, 1 (1925-26): 4-11.
53. Cited in Wilfried Daim, Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab. Die sektierischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus (Vienna/Cologne/Graz, 1985)
146: "Die J u d e n als ein von alien historischen und vorhistorischen Rassen
und aus den Schlacken aller untergegangenen kulturvolker zusammengemischtes Tschandalenvolk."
54. J o r g Lanz von Liebenfels, Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den
Sodoms-Aefflingen und dem Gotter-Elektron (Vienna: Moderner Verlag,
1905) 147-52.
55. Note that Sir William Jones' translation of the Lams of Manu (1794)
had been translated into German by Johann Christoph Hiittner under
the title Hindu-Gesetzbuch (Weimer: Industrie Comptoirs, 1797) and had
been examined in racist sense by a F. Gernandt, "Aus dem HinduGesetzbuch des Manu" in the Politisch-Anthropologische Revue 3 (1904):
264-68. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism. The
Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935 (Wellinborough, Northamtonshire: Aquarian Press, 1985), 242, suggests that this might have been
Lanz' source. Lanz used Tschandala for lower classes and mongrelized
inferiors, see Ostara 1, April 1908 (22): 6, 16.
56. Die Ostara und das Reich der Blonden, vol. 1.
57. Lueger was a mayor of Vienna in the 1890's and one of the first
European politicians to make a career out of anti-Semitism.
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70. Cited in Otto Strasser, "Hitler, Gandhi und das j u n g e Deutschland," Die Kommenden Aug. 8, 1930: 376: "Bund der unterdriickten
Nationen ist ein dummes Schlagwort . . . Wenn heute der Inder unter
d e r H e r r s c h a f t Englandes lebt . . . o d e r d e r Schwarze unter d e r
Herrschaft irgend eines europaischen Volkes, so ist dies in deren Inferioritat begriindet. . . Der Freiheitskampf der Schwarzen, Inder, usw.
ist der Versuch der Durchbrechung einer natiirlichen Rangorden . . .
Die Bewunderung von Gandhi ist in meinen Augen eine rassische Perversitat."
71. See Otto Strasser, "Hitler, Gandhi und das j u n g e Deutschland,"
377.
72. Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert: eine Wertung der
Seeluch-Geistigen Gestaltenkampfe unserer Zeit (Munich: Hoheneichen,
1943) 149: ". . . der alter Inderund der war es, der Indien erschuf
sein Leben liess nicht um der Liebe, sondern um der Pflicht und Ehre
willen. Ein ungetreuer wurde auch iin arischen Indien verdammt, nicht
weil er lieblos, sondern weil er ehrlos geworden war. 'Besser das Lebens
fiihlt man nur einen Augenblick, den Verlust der Ehre aber T a g f u r Tag'
(O. Bothlingk, Indische Spriiche)."
73. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 28: "Nach dieser
Scheidung zwischen Blut und Blut gestalteten die Arier sich ein Bild der
Welt, das an T i e f e u n d Weitraumigkeit auch h e u t e von keiner
Philosophic iiberboten werden kann."
74. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 30.
75. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des. 20. Jahrhundert
31: ". . . nach
langdauernden Auseinandersetzungen mit den immer wieder eindringenden Vorstellungen der niederrassigen Eingeborenen." Rosenberg was also influenced by Hans F. K. Giinther who described the process of Aryan racial degeneration in Die nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens (Munich: J. F. Lehmann, 1934), 41: "Die Kastengesetzgebung
wurde als Rassenschutz dadurch beeintrachtigt und schliesslich sinnlos,
dass sie das Aufheiraten von Frauen aus der nachstniedrigen Kaste in die
hohere zuliess . . . Auf solche Weise verdunkelte in zunehmendem Masse
das arische Indertum sich selbst und entfremdete sich selbst dem Geiste
seiner Vorvater. Durch A u f n a h m e nichtarischen Blutes wurde so im
Lauf der J a h r h u n d e r t e aus dem Indertum das Hindutum, aus indischem Geiste der Hindugeist, der vom Indogermanentum schliesslich
nur noch etwas Uebertragbares, die Sprache bewahrte." This process of
degeneration corresponded to a gradual darkening of the Aryan, even in
the highest caste. T h r o u g h the crossing of races, the mixture of castes,
and the environment, the Aryan race of India met its downfall. T h e
"lastende feuchte Hitze Indiens," infant mortality and higher sickness in
general contributed to the spiritual Widerstandswillen of the Aryans. See
Die nordische Rasse, 50: "Sie hat also eine immerwahrende Qual immer
von neuem dem ererbten Geiste mutiger arischer Lebensfrische entgegengewirkt, bis diesem mutigen, lebensfrohen, dieseitigen, echt Indogermanischen Geiste beim Zusammenbruch wurde der Erbstamme
des eingewanderten Indertums das Mark entzogen."
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76. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 149-50: "Mit d e r auf
das Erdenleben iibertragenen Philosophic des Atman-Brahman verneintewie f r u h e r ausgefiihrtder Arier seine Rasse, damit seine Personlichkeit, damit aber auch die Idee der Ehre als seelisches Riickgrat
seines Lebens."
77. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 30.
78. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 147: "Wir sprechen von
Indien als von einer weichmiitigen im All zerfliessenden, Menschenliebe
u n d Mitleiden als Hochstes lehrenden Weltanschauung . . . Und doch
ragen in diese liebeund mitleidvollen Erzeugnisse d e r indischen Spatzeit ganz andere, altere Anschauungen hinein, die nicht personliches
Gliicksgefuhl und Leidlosigkeit als einzig erstrebenswertes Ziel anerkennen, sondern Pflichterfullung u n d Behauptung d e r Ehre."
79. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 342: " U n d als eine solche
Tragik wird Schopenhauer unserer E h r f u r c h t stets gewiss sein, als das
Beispiel e i n e s h e r o i s c h e n u n d in s e i n e r G e w a l t i g k e i t e c h t
abendlandischenKampfes um das Wesen d e r Welt; ein Mensch hat
hier alles auf eine Karte gesetzt, u n d diese hat fehlgeschlagen. Die verzweifelten A u f r a f f u n g e n zur H o h e e n d e n immer mit einem Zuriickfallen ins Nichts. Aber auch d e r doch ganz unindische Schopenhauer bekannte, das Hochste, was ein Mensch erreichen konne sei ein "heroischer
Lebenslauf." Das ist ein nordisches Bekenntnis, wie es schoner nicht
g e f u n d e n werden kann u n d deshalb ist A r t u r Schopenhauerunser."
80. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 267: '[Der Inder] legt ein
derart grosses Gewicht auf sie; dass er in letzter Konsequenz zu der auch
ausgesprochenen Anschauung gelangt, die T a t als solche konne einem
Wissenden, des Atman-Brahman Teilhaftigen, nichts anhaben. Er ist
"nicht durch das Werk befleckt, das bose." "Alles Fleischliche sei sowieso
n u r T r u g u n d Schein, was mit ihm geschehe, gleichgiiltig. Das ist die
letzte Konsequenz Indiens."
81. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 660-61: "Jeder E u r o p a e r
erblickt in Alt-Indien ein Land seiner T r a u m e ; inmitten einer Zeit
technischer Bestialisierung tauchten nicht die Schlechtesten unter in die
Gedanken Jajnavalkyas, Cankaras, entziickten sich an dem Helden
Rama, dem Gotte Krischna, d e m Dichter Kalidasa. Dies hatte zur Folge,
dass diese Indiensucher Europas Erlosung durch Alt-Indien predigten
u n d gar nicht bemerken, dass dieses arische Indien einst gerade an d e n
das Herz endlos erweiternden Gedanken der spaten Upanishads zug r u n d e gegangen war."
82. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 622. See also 661-62:
"Wir sehen hier o f f e n ein europaisches Lebensgefiihl eingreifen, das
allerdings sofort wieder d u r c h die Bemerkungen abgeschwacht wird,
dass weder H a u t f a r b e noch Ahnen den Brahmanen machten, sondern
Charakter. Hier o f f e n b a r t sich die ganze Tragik selbst des iiber die 300
Millionen seiner Volksgenossen hinausragenden Inders. Denn, wollte er
die Entfaltung der Arier schildern, so musste er bekennen, dass der
Arier bis auf ganz geringe Spuren untergegangen ist. Hinterlassen h a t e r
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Heldengesange, eine tiefe, grosse Philosophic, spater ins Extreme, Uferlose, Dschungelartige getrieben, das Rassenchaos forderte."
83. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert 36, see also 621-62:
"Durch ein zu weites Atemholen sind die Blutadern des Rassenkorpers
gesprengt, arisch-indisches Blut fliesst aus . . . Die Zuchtkraft arischindischer Denk- und Lebensformen also Ergebnis von nordischer Rasse
und indischer Natur ist zwar ungeheuer, aber die rassische Substanz, aus
deren Seele einst die Gedanken und Staaten entstiegen, ist bis auf
geringe Ueberreste verschwunden. Deshalb zeugte Indien auch n u r den
miiden Gandhi mit seinem Pazifismus, nicht einen einer Neuschopfung
ermoglichenden Feldherren."
84. Richard W a g n e r ' s English-born son-in-law a n d a political
philosopher who developed racial themes of Aryan superiority.
85. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 82.
86. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 104.
87. Alfred Rosenberg, Blut und Ehre: ein Kampf fur deutsche Wiedergehurt
(Munich: Franz Eher, 1939).
88. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert, 201-3.
89. Hans F. K. Giinther, Die nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens,
51f: ". . . Zerfallserscheinung nordischen Rassengeistes in tropischindischer Umwelt."
90. Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert,
36: "eine Rassenschande, deren Erzeugnisse heute als armselige Bastarde in den Wassern des Ganges eine Heilung f u r ihr verkriippeltes Dasein erflehen."